A life-extending treatment for advanced cervical cancer will be made available to hundreds of NHS patients from today.
The immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) is the first new addition to NHS treatment for incurable cervical cancer for 14 years.
Around 400 people are expected to benefit from the treatment over the next three years after NHS England struck a deal to fast-track the drug through the Cancer Drugs Fund making it immediately available.
The drug is already offered by the NHS in England for the treatment of several other cancers, including breast, bowel, lung, and skin, and it has now been given the green light by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for certain patients with cervical cancer whose disease has not responded to other treatments1.
Given in combination with standard chemotherapy, the injected drug works by stimulating the body’s immune system to fight the cancer cells, targeting and blocking a specific protein (called PD-L1) on the surface of certain immune cells which then seek out and destroy the cancerous cells.
Clinical trial data suggest that adding pembrolizumab to standard chemotherapy may help extend patients’ lives by up to eight months on average (compared to chemotherapy alone), and the drug will now be available via the Cancer Drugs Fund while further evidence on the exact survival benefit is collected and analysed.
Around 2,600 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year in England, with the disease most-commonly diagnosed between the ages of 30 and 34, according to Cancer Research UK.
NHS England’s Director of Specialised Commissioning and interim Commercial Medicines Director, John Stewart, said: “After nearly 15 years without a new treatment for this type of advanced cervical cancer, this first immunotherapy marks a significant step forward that will provide hundreds of people with precious time with their loved ones.
“This is the 243rd treatment offered through the Cancer Drugs Fund that enables the NHS to provide faster access to cutting-edge cancer treatments for patients, while further data about its long term clinical benefit can be collected”
